We are all dealing with similar situations. Our lives are basically on hold but we have to keep living every day until this process is over. As others have said, we did marry people out of our country and that isn't the government's fault. Personally, I had no idea it would be such a hassle to have my new husband visit my country!! We don't realize how lucky we are to basically travel where ever we want as Canadians.
As for applying for a Visitor's Visa ... we've been refused three times!!! The first time we applied because I wanted to bring my partner (not married yet) to meet my family and friends in Canada. Nope, the visa officer decided that he might not return to CR when he was supposed to and the reason he decided that was because he doesn't have a job - he's retired; he doesn't own property - that changed hands in his divorce; and lastly, that he didn't own a business. As far as they were concerned he didn't have strong enough ties to make him come back to CR. Like most people in CR he is not a wealthy man and therefore doesn't own much of anything but that doesn't make him a bad person or irresponsible and not going to uphold the law. He was a police officer before retiring.
The second attempt was after we were married ... foolish me thinking that would make a difference. Nope, same reasons altho we had given them more information about us, where he had traveled before, and support letters from his daughters, etc.
The third attempt was after I spoke with my MP's office in Canada and they told me to give them an itinerary of where we would go to visit while he was here with people's names, addresses, and phone numbers; how long we would stay in each place, how we would support ourselves while we were here; we sent a letter of support from my daughter who was going to put us up for the month, etc. All this information simply gave them a stronger case that he had more support in Canada than he did in CR which is insane, but they have the upper hand and there is nothing you can do but go along with it!
So after wasting 3 x the money, the time and God knows frustration to do all this, we still had no VV and that is when I started working on our PR application. It took a year and a half to get it all together because they keep updating the documents and every time I changed them I had to get my husband and his daughters (who are not accompanying him) to sign them again, plus getting everything translated, etc. you know the drill, you have all been there. We submitted our one kilogram application from CR on Dec 29/18 and it arrived by courier on Jan 4/19 in Sydney, NS. Here we are just over a year later, still jumping through their hoops and hoping this whole thing will soon end.
Yes, I get just as frustrated as you all do, and yes, it's unfair ... but it doesn't make anything happen faster and certainly doesn't affect the officers or the process at all, so I prefer to spend my energy in other ways.
Sorry I didn't mean to write a book!
